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Why homosexuality should be encouraged in India

When the Supreme court acts like a Khap and bans homosexuality in a country like India, it is indeed a dark day especially when allowing it would have done wonders for the country. Decriminalization of homosexuality would have turned us into better humans over the coming decades but by making it a criminal offence, all we are doing is being consistently thick-headed.

This criminalization bit basically means that two consenting adult men or women cannot indulge in ding-dong inside their own house behind close doors. Strange and insane as it may sound, from now onwards they will always be haunted by images of God wiggling his finger at them reminding them of the ‘natural order’ of things. They will also be haunted by Baba Ramdev trying to seduce them into their ashram so that he could cure them by teaching them how to tie themselves in a knot. And this happened after giving four years of hope to those consenting adults that they would be treated like ‘normal’ human beings.

I am disappointed majorly because this was such a golden chance for India to set a few things in order. Take the example of population control. Now we all know that two men or two women cannot produce a baby because of chromosomal complications. That would be like Rakhi Sawant spelling Czechoslovakia correctly. This decriminalization would have helped India to solve this problem of babies popping out of every nook and corner of the country. We would have slowed down this production line of wailing babies for a while.

Another major change would have been lesser dowry deaths. The LGBT community does not believe in arranged marriages and matrimonial websites could not have possibly exploited this aspect of our society. We usually burn around 8000 brides every year which would have considerably reduced. We would have also reduced cases of marital rapes, which by the way, are completely legal at the moment as per the natural order.

Consider female feticide as well. Parents might not kill their daughters when they would realize that after attaining adulthood, their daughters might leave with another woman. There would be no need to save money for their dowry and marriage for the rest of your life. In fact parents would have encouraged it (at least in case of women) and we would have seen ‘Become lesbian in 10 days’ posters on the rear windows of autos.

“She got married to her lesbian lover,” Mrs. Chadha replied with pride.

“Really! How lucky! Our daughter turned out to be one of those silly normal ones. My husband spent his entire pension and savings on her marriage.”

“Pity! We are going on a Euro tour next month. But your son did turn out all right, no? He is gay, right?”

“Yeah, and thank god for that!” said Mrs. Ahloowalia.

“What about the family tree?”

“Oh fuck trees! They are adopting!” Mrs. Ahloowalia beamed.

We would have also seen a rise in the number of adoptions happening in our country. Usually same-sex couples end up adopting children to complete their family. This would have taken the burden off the conscience of parents who leave their children in garbage bins. Of course, our ultra complex adoption laws would have to be amended. They anyway need an amendment at present because by the time a couple is able to finish the formalities of adopting a 6 months old child, he/she is already 18.

Maybe decriminalization followed by making same-sex marriage legal would have made us more tolerant to people who are different from what we consider normal. It would have opened doors for other kind of kindness too. For example, we would have stopped looking down upon all the Chinese from the Eastern states of India or the people who work in our houses or collect garbage for us or who pull the rickshaw or who live under the flyovers or who are not married or who are differently-abled or who are raped. One kind of acceptance would have opened doors for another kind.

Another good thing that would have come out if it is that the country would have shown a middle finger to all the people who are the mouthpiece of Gods. It is strange how God has nothing better to do other than frothing via the mouth of his fan club dying to set the world straight. All around the world, the countries that have moved away from conservative religious zombies and madmen and have kicked them in the ass are the ones where people have a much better living standard. This was our chance to be progressive. And we supremely fucked up.

It does not matter if we hurl a hundred rockets towards Mars or set up an Indian colony on that planet. As long as we poke our nose in the affairs of two consenting adults and do not give them freedom of choice, all those scientific advancements don’t mean a thing. As long as we do not open our minds to the fact that it is every one’s right to be happy irrespective or their orientations, gender, caste or religion – we are still very much where our ancestors were. On the trees.

brilliant! //As long as we do not open our minds to the fact that it is every one’s right to be happy …// it all starts from here. we have only conditional relationships- take any relationship – “i will be happy ONLY if YOU do this, this & this.” and this includes being, behaving, thinking, eating, living in a way ‘I’ think is correct. Yes? apply this to any example – parent-child, spouses, lovers, teacher-student so on and on. we’ve never grown up in a culture which fosters discussion, elegant debates, respecting differences. but i am glad our generation is very vocal…and we are speaking out.

Most of the relationships are conditional or turn conditional after a while which is really sad.
And for some crazy reason we proudly propagate this trait.
I am glad too majorly because of the way everyone reacted after the judgement. At least we made our stand clear.

i read this on some newspaper today. shocking, to say the least. there are many who would support this supreme court verdict. what can we expect in a country like this where judgement of people, that includes supreme court judges, is influenced by prejudices? nice to see this post here.

Well written post Amit, I was telling my husband the other day that we have been telling India is developing country over many decades. I think we will never get into a developed country list unless we are ready to solve common man issues. Like you said we can’t call our self great just because we were able to send a rocket to mars.

At some level, I keep asking myself – what made me think these idiots would do any different? Even if it is the SC, it has shown zero spine in any decision of note.
But the level of persecution that is coming… think about it. You can harass any enemy you want by simply suggesting a vulgar connotation to them going out with their friends. As it is, we are a chutiya country which frowns on seeing couples in love walking around.. now, if two guys or two girls are innocently walking around also, you have given ammunition to imbeciles to actually harass them and suggest they are criminals.
Buffoons like that Ramdev are the real assholes who look to profit from this.. I loved Sri Sri Ravi’s simple take on it… basic common sense.

Excuse my cynicism but I sense that this a political ploy. Suddenly after the court ruling Sonia and Rahul came out to denounce and offered to reverse it. Gay community is a large minority for neat log. Now they will act as saviors in an attempt to garner votes. Somehow, in this pre election year I view everything from a vote bank prism.
Nice timely post Amit.

I too was surprised to see Congress come out and denounce the ruling. I don’t think they have ever been so prompt. Remember, they took a week to come out with a statement after the Nirbhaya case?
Thanks Alka.

I can sense your utter disgust and anger through this post! What can I say! I am completely disgusted that we are even discussing something as basic as right to love and live with dignity in the 21st century. Our country takes the cake, bakery and city!

The SC verdict is scary to say the least. But scarier are the statements from the ‘educated’ ones in our midst whose views hurt more than Baba Ramdev’s. How I wish sexuality were a better discussed topic in our society! It’s sad to see so many people who don’t understand the issues around freedom of expression. identity, orientation and consent.

The SC ruled that Section 377 stays in the statute book and that it is for the Parliament to repeal it. It has not criminalised homosexuality. You don’t have to imply “Against the order of nature” in S.377 as just being gay. This is not only what the Section talks about. Also, the Courts have not prosecuted more than 200 people in S.377’s 150 years of existence.

Secondly, the heading of S. 377 is unnatural offences and there is only one Section of this kind in IPC. It does not only include gay or lesbian people but also includes by “unnatural” people who force male children for anal sex, sex with animals etc. So, decriminalising the entire section would have led these offences go unpunished.

Thirdly, it is not Supreme Court’s duty to make or repeal law. Their duty is to interpret the law which is what Justice G S Singhvi has done. Now, if the parliament decides to amend S. 377 or repeal it or categorise offences under this Section, it is welcome to do it.

It is neither that great a judgment nor is it such to welcome this level of outrage.
I would request you to read the provision and the complete judgment.

Disclaimer: I support the freedom of sexual choice. But I also support making an informed decision about issues.

I said that the judgment is not great (not perfect and unpopular), but Justice Singhvi in fact did get the law right. The judgment along with the Law Commission Reports requires a dispassionate and unprejudiced reading.

If allowing same sex intercourse is moral, legal, progressive and widely acceptable then it is the job of the legislature to amend the law. The changing notions of morality and sex, cannot by themselves be grounds for declaring a provision unconstitutional.

However, after reserving the judgment for over 21 months, it was expected that the judgment would be more exhaustive. The judgment does not discuss the judicial developments in other parts of the world. A better analysis was certainly required.

It is also not the case that the judgment leaves no window open for LGBT community. Para 38 of the judgment clearly provides the way ahead. While extensively dealing with the reported judgments, it has been held that in all the cases where the accused have been prosecuted on an offence under Section 377 IPC, there has been non-consensual and markedly coercive situations and the keenness of the Court in bringing justice to the victims who are either women or children cannot be discounted while analyzing the manner in which the section has been interpreted.

The judges clearly stated that they “are apprehensive of whether the Court would rule similarly in a case of proved consensual intercourse between the adults”.

However, on a proper analysis, the SC judgment is in line with the judicially evolved principles and the Constitution. Also, the Government has filed a review under Article 137 and I am sure the ruling will be reversed. My point was on the fact that the level of outrage is not required because I was damn sure that a review under Article 137 will eventually over rule the judgment. The media went berserk as if it was the final decision. Had a review resulted in keeping 377 in the statute book then I would have agreed with the furore. The good thing about the judgment is that it galvanized the Government to file a review against it, which means that the Government is willing to take a step to amend or completely strike down S.377.

Thanks to Dagny I stumbled upon your post. And boy am I glad. It was funny alright but each one had such a hard hitting message. A tight slap across our face. Really this was our time to step it up, prove it to them. We can do it. We are on road to productivity but nahhh we decided it would dent our reputation to being a class Asses and that would be just so not right.

Amit write more of such things. We need people who can not only bring out such pieces but also provide a direct connect with the reader. An awesome piece 🙂

Took me a while to get back here, but I am glad I am on your ‘followers’ list – so it allowed me to read one of your posts first! I couldn’t agree more with you. I haven’t gone through what everyone else has to say (I am pretty sure someone has mentioned it earlier) – We are soon going to go the Russian way. Over the past few years same sex couples have been victims of violence, and from the way our culture lovers behave, we don’t seem too far away.

In the wake of issues like children dying due to cold, homeless people battling the odds, women getting raped, communal violence, natural disaster and their (mis)management – our judiciary chooses to decide on the sexual preference of people!

Exactly! There are so many other issues that require our urgent attention but suddenly harassing homosexuals to save our culture seems to be our top priority. It is as if we do not have anything better to do.

Thanks for writing this.
I have six gay family members, and my uncles are gay and have been legally married for over ten years (although they have been together for 30 years). I also have many gay friends who have told me that as long as they are in the closet, they are constantly in fear that they will be “found out” and therefore as long as they are in the closet, they do not get to rise up as much as they can – in terms of career, life, etc.
India NEEDS LGBT rights because it promotes tolerance to different ways of life. And it would be HUGE for the adoption. Think of all the street kids who would be in a two parent home, raised in love and get good education and opportunities. I know quite a few gay parents who have had surrogacy in India.

Guess Sanity vows put things in the correct perspective …
As for congress , it is easy to gain browny points as their secular lobby is placated by the upholding of this law while they seek votes of lgbt .

The cops gain the most here as they can still blackmail gay individuals with this sec 377 danda. Problem is that most people in closet fear being outed and that is taken full advantage of by cops

All said, sec 377 cases against same sex sex would not hold up in court of law if it was between consenting adults.